Commuting area
Commuting area means the geographic area surrounding a work site that encompasses the localities where people live and reasonably can be expected to travel back and forth daily to work, as established by the employing agency based on the generally held expectations of the local community. When an employee's residence is within the standard commuting area for a work site, the work site is within the employee's commuting area. When an employee's residence is outside the standard commuting area for a proposed new work site, the employee's commuting area is deemed to include the expanded area surrounding the employee's residence and including all destinations that can be reached via a commuting trip that is not significantly more burdensome than the current commuting trip. This excludes a commuting trip from a residence where the employee planned to stay only temporarily until he or she could find a more permanent residence closer to his or her work site. For this purpose, a commuting trip to a new work site is considered significantly more burdensome if it would compel the employee to change his or her place of residence in order to continue employment, taking into account commuting time and distance, availability of public transportation, cost, and any other relevant factors.